1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a garment having a body support unit secured thereto; particularly to a garment having a body support unit secured thereto in a manner allowing the support unit to expand or contract substantially freely of the garment.
2. Background
Support units have long been used for compressing unwanted body bulges to conceal them from view and provide a thinner or smoother body image. One example of a support unit is commonly referred to as a girdle. To complete the desired image, the support unit was often concealed beneath outer clothing to prevent others from detecting that the support unit was employed to provide the thinner, smoother image exhibited. While some garments have been manufactured in the past with interior support or stretch panels fixed thereto, such garments have typically been assembled utilizing exterior shell fabrics of the type that incorporate mechanical stretch properties inclusively engineered into the woven or knitted shell fabric.
One such garment is disclosed by Kishi in U.S. Pat. No. 5,888,118. In Kishi, an interior stretch lining is stitched to an outer stretch-type shell garment at the site of the slide fastener (zipper) of the shell. Other garments have an outer shell garment having an elastic-type gathered waistband employed to allow the marrying of a smaller waistband of a stretch lining to the larger elastic-type gathered waistband of the shell. In these garments, the lining waistband and the shell waistband are each typically constructed to be smaller than the waist of the intended wearer such that upon placing the garment on the wearer's body, both the shell waistband and the stretch lining were stretched and the propensity for the lining to return to its relaxed state allowed the lining to have its intended effect of compressing the wearer's body bulges. With the lining fastened directly to the shell, the contraction of the lining waistband caused a concomitant contraction in the shell waistband. Thus, the elastic gathered waistband was gathered and bunched by the contraction of the stretch lining as it contracted to the wearer's body. In yet another example disclosed by Bergstein in U.S. Pat. No. 3,234,947 a stretch lining having panels of Lycra.RTM. was cut to be relaxed at the top of the front and back panels of the outer shell garment. The bottom of the Lycra.RTM. panels were cut to be narrower than the accompanying shell leg panels with which they were to be combined. However, the expansion and contraction of the stretch linings of these prior garments resulted in a concomitant reaction at the outer shell garment attached thereto causing an unattractive and cheaper, low-end look to the garment.